Prairie #12

This design has certain elements in common with a design I found at a house design web site. Here is the page where the "original" design lives. While it's easy to see the common elements, especially in the view immediately below, that my friends, is where the similarity ends. This design's floor plan is nothing at all like the "original".

This is a narrow lot design with a 3-car garage that's under the main house. I used a "Prairie" motif on many interior details, hence the name. There is a total of about 3,130 sq. ft. in the house (including a couple of rooms in the basement), with four bedrooms, 2 full baths and 2-½ baths (one in the basement), formal living and dining, library, office, den/sitting, informal dining/family room, and an island kitchen.

The Front

Obviously this house is suitable for a sloped lot. I chose to make the backyard mostly flat so I could have the back porch look the way it does. I think the picnic table and built-in charcoal grill are a nice touch.

The Rear

The first floor plan is below. Some things worth noting:

• Visitors walk through the arched doorways under the front gazebo/covered veranda (whatever you want to call it) and up the stairs to the covered "front" porch, which is really more toward the read of the house.
• From the entry, you can turn right for the kitchen, straight ahead for the dining room through French doors, or left to go through the hall, eventually coming to the great room.
• Under the U-shaped stairs are the stairs down to the basement/garage.
• There's a small office or den in front, behind glass French doors.
• You enter onto the covered veranda through the office. I suppose you could place doors from the great room onto this outdoor space, but I thought the great room needed to be only an observer of this space.
• Note the stained glass panels between the great room and the library. I do like this touch, as it lends a small Victorian flavor to the design.
• Pocket doors lead from the library into the dining room, which in the Victorian tradition is a rather well appointed room, complete with built-in cabinets and a half wall between it and the kitchen.
• The kitchen is characterized by a large central island. The island could be made into an eat-in bar, but I chose to keep it more for workspace. I moved the sink to the left to make more workspace more centrally located.
• Note the back covered porch.
• The back right room could be different things. I chose to make it a smaller dining room, but I can picture it being set up as a place for kids to play. Since it's near the kitchen, mom can keep an eye on the kids without having to actually be in the same room.

On the second floor plan, below, you might want to note the following:

• The master suite occupies the entire front portion of the floor. You enter into a small sitting room, not much larger than a couple of chairs.
• The master bedroom has a low-ceilinged alcove in the front. It's easily large enough for a king size bed (which is what is shown in the images, below). The master bedroom also has a tray ceiling (painted blue like sky) and ceiling beams. I also trimmed the wall corners, etc.
• Then into the master bath, which has a large corner spa tub and a shower, as well as the required two sinks. One sink has a vanity where someone could sit down to apply makeup, etc. There is also a door into the large walk-in closet.
• The main upstairs bath also has a separate water closet, since that bathroom is likely to be shared.
• I needed to angle the hall and the access to the two back bedrooms, but I don't think it looks bad. The bedrooms aren't terribly large, but there are three of them, so I think there's enough room for everyone.
• The two baths and the 3 o'clock bedroom (right side in the plan) have 10' ceilings.

Here is the image I used on the Country Home Series page. I thought you might like to see it full size.

I like the antique-looking streetlight in the front yard next to the driveway. I also like the veranda/cupola on the right. It's a nice exterior feature. To the left of the veranda is the great room, with some facade detailing. Above the great room is the master bedroom. To the right of that is the small sitting room and the box window.

And here we have the obligatory night view. Pretty good looking house, if I do say so myself.

This view is from the west side of the house.

This view is from the east side of the house.

Inside, we look down the hall toward the front of the house. That's the office at the end of the hall. Starting with this image, you will notice a lot of soffit detailing along the ceilings. Perhaps it's excessive, but I went with an idea. I do say that most of the rooms look pretty good.

Inside the office door, we look outside at the veranda.

We walk to the opposite corner and look back toward the French doors that lead to the hall.

And here is the great room from the vicinity of the doorway between the great room and the library. We're looking toward the front of the house. I also wanted a bit of an eclectic look for this room--sorta like what you might see if someone inherited some family heirloom furniture (and an area rug). It's not all slick and coordinated, much like most of our houses.

This view of the great room shows the stained glass panels on either side of the library doorway.

And here is the library.

Let's continue the tour from the kitchen. This is standing inside the kitchen doorway, if we walked from the entry into the kitchen.

This view shows the doorway and half wall alongside the dining room.

This kitchen view is from the back door looking toward the front door. The doorway straight ahead leads to the informal dining room, which could be used as a family room or kids' play room.

This informal dining room isn't large, but I decided to show it with a small round table.

This is a view of the "main" dining room, from the kitchen doorway. That's the library through those French doors (pocket doors) on the right. The French doors on the left lead to the front entry. Note the built-in cabinets.

This view of the dining room is from the French doors to the front entry. Kitchen on right, library on left.

Final view of the dining room. Behind us in this view is the library.

This view shows the hall. The door on the left is to the downstairs half bath. The doors in the center are to a closet. The French doors to their left (our right) lead to the dining room, and obviously that's the kitchen through the doorway on the right.

Here are the stairs. The door leads to the basement stairs. Note the seat alongside the stairs.

We are going upstairs, and this is the upstairs hall from the second landing. Note the soffit details.

This looks down the upstairs hall toward the bedrooms.

This is the upstairs bath.

This is the back-right bedroom.

This is the "9 o'clock" bedroom with the 10' ceiling.

We now enter the master suite. This is the small sitting room, looking toward the master bedroom.

Here is the master bedroom itself. Note the alcove and the high, tray ceiling.

From the corner of the alcove, we look toward the master bath.

This is the alcove, from the other side.

Lastly, this is the master bedroom from the other corner of the alcove.

Here we are in the doorway of the master bath. Note the shower on the left, and the large spa tub between the sinks.

From the closet doorway, this shows the tub and shower better. That door on the left is to the water closet. The doors to the right lead to the master bedroom.

Finally, here we look toward the walk-in closet. Of course, that's the water closet door straight ahead.